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Josh Huff’s goal was to make the honour roll of Canada’s aspiring accountants writing their three-day formal evaluation exam.

The Owen Sounder reached that and more, earning the gold medal for being the top scorer among all the exam writers in Canada.

Huff, 23, wrote the three-day national exam in mid September along with thousands of others. There were just over 3,000 successful writers of the exam —1,279 from Ontario alone — and Huff beat them all.

“It’s still hard to fathom I guess,” Huff said in a recent interview.

The results became official on Nov. 30. There were 59 people named to the national honour roll, including Tyler Rennie of Meaford.

Huff initially hoped to make the honour roll. “I knew it was kind of a lofty goal, but I was hoping I could achieve that. Once I found out about the gold medal, I was shocked. That was beyond what I expected.”

The objective of the uniform evaluation exam — widely known as the UFE — is to ensure that newly qualified CAs are appropriately proficient in established competencies, especially those essential to the practice of public accounting, according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. Each year all CA candidates write the same evaluation, allowing the profession to set one single, high standard that is nationally and internationally recognized.

Huff, who now lives in Waterloo and works for KPMG, said he treated preparation for the exam like a job, studying from nine to five Monday through Friday. On weekends over the summer, he visited Owen Sound, played for the Owen Sound United soccer team, and hung out with friends who had nothing to do with accounting, “so I could kind of keep my mind off the exam, then come back Monday and study hard.”

His advice to future UFE writers is to find a balance in their preparation and not get too stressed out.

“If I was to give advice to someone who’s writing next fall, I would say a lot of people get really stressed out with the process, but if you can find a way to keep yourself calm and confident throughout the process so you don’t stress yourself out, that’s how you can get the best results.”

Huff graduated from West Hill Secondary School. His mother, Hildegard Huff, is a family doctor in Owen Sound, and his father, Harry, is a Lutheran minister. Older brother Jeff is a teacher in Waterloo.

Huff graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University last year with a bachelor degree in business administration, specializing in accounting. He said he started thinking about a career in business back in high school because he was good in math.

Becoming a chartered accountant is an extension of that, because the designation will give him greater career flexibility down the road, he said.

Winning the gold medal opens a lot of doors he hadn’t expected to open, he said, but he’s in no hurry to move on.

“In the meantime I’m really enjoying working here at KPMG in Waterloo. In the short term I’m going to keep working here.”

Rennie, the Meaford honour roll recipient who works at Gaviller & Company in Meaford, said he was pleased with his results.

“I was pretty surprised obviously,” he said. “I was pretty proud of myself actually for making the honour roll.”

The 25-year-old graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in commerce and a specialty in accounting.

Rennie said doing well on the exam is stacked in favour of people working for larger firms.

“Most of the large firms have mentoring and training programs for their writers,” he said. “Being from a small firm, I didn’t have these at my disposal, but was able to make up for it by applying myself for the entire year. Whether you work at a small or large firm, it is still quite an accomplishment to make the honour roll and I am very proud to have done so.”